Library Journal Article on "Self Service Library"

Congratulations Susan Kantor-Horning on an article well-done . I know this article is a little overdue (pun intended) but that's on par with the whole project. In Yuba County at our Wheatland location, the GoLibrary has yet to offer uninterrupted service for more than 3 weeks running. The good news is that the problems these days are minor, usually a book/box is stuck. The bad news is that it means a 30 minute trip for someone to go out to the machine and back in order to un-stick it.

For those interested, I wanted to add a vendor to the list mentioned in your article. mkSorting has designed and created a state of the art version of book dispenser and it would seem mkSorting intends to beta test the machine before bringing to it market. We have heard from the vendor that they anticipate their machine to be ready for release before the end of the year.

ARRA's auras

Figuring out what's up with the fed funds potentially out there for libraries, is like pppp'ing in the wind. Funding will go mostly to commercial applications and we will be tasked with providing the markets, then training the markets, then providing free access to the well-trained markets. We must play the knowledge management card in order to take a stand as the great equalizers in the middle of the great divide.

How to? See Movers & Shakers 2009

ALA 2009 Movers & Shakers 2009

Widget Test

Top Ten Library 2.0 Minimum Requirements

http://otherlibrarian.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/my-top-ten-library-20-no-brainers-for-public-libraries/

Blocked Again

http://www.gnu.org/manual/manual.html
I was going to post this on twitter but our IT department blocks it because of "adult language."
I've been blocked earlier today because of items that are "proxy" related, specifically this seems to include anything that has a tiny URL. I have a list of blocked items that I'm continually adding to in hopes that eventually it will serve as a back up support for libraries' increasing need for "social networking" tools and availability.
The above link that I started with here was not blocked, fortunately. It may be of interest to making lists of free software and free software documentation (manuals.)
Check it out!

Widgets & Gadgets & Blogs, Oh MY!

ALA workshop reminded me of how little I know and far there is to go to be Web2.0 (L2) savvy. It seems as if all I do these days is create new free accounts with no time to use them, apply what I learned or often even remember the password to the latest addition to what is cascading into a torrent of "It's all about ME" resources.

Fun as it all is, has been and will be, the only thing that keeps me taking the learning curve at 90 mph is knowing that somewhere along the way I'll be able to make it more manageable for someone else. The choices are multiplying like bunnies (have you seen Bob Stupel et al's Everything Web 2.0? I found it on Sacred Cow Dung as "the List," but it's been distributed all over the web. (It's so amazing, I just linked to twice just in case you weren't tempted by the first one.) I believe this list has been growing since 2006.

Forget about the 43 things, the list is 43+ printed pages of things for us to learn & play.